Cosmo monitors my activity on my computer from her perch behind me. She prefers YouTubes of birds, but she also watches dogs, cats and elephants — whatever I pull up in the way of animals. She especially likes the YouTube of herself taking a dip in the doggies’ water bowl. (See: www.youtube.com/user/cosmotalks.)

The young whale, named NOC, was mimicking the human conversations he had overheard among the divers in his tank at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego. Scientists attribute NOC’s behavior to whales’ long vocal-learning period. NOC learned his calls from the humans in his tank. Not from his biological mother, not from a pod of whale pals.

Four years later, upon reaching maturity, NOC abandoned his human-ish speech and thereafter emitted only normal whale sounds.

When I think of humans keeping whales in tanks, chimps in research institutes, mice in laboratories and other animals in zoos to satisfy our curiosity, I feel bad. We are sentencing sensitive individuals to lifetimes of unhappiness in order to acquire knowledge about their species.

But then I’m keeping Cosmo in my home to satisfy my curiosity about her species, as well as to have a feathery little friend.

How can we justify incarceration of individuals of any species? For more than 10,000 years we humans have exploited other animals, not just for food but for transportation, protection, work, entertainment and companionship. For more than 2,500 years, at least since Aristotle, we have used animals for scientific experimentation.

Of course, we weren’t seeing the world from the animals’ viewpoint. Our ability to dominate other species reinforced our conviction that the human species was superior, specially created, absolutely different from every other species and unique in having consciousness. And conversely, our belief in our human superiority justified our domination of the less powerful.

Why should we 21st-century humans behave differently from our predecessors? Because we understand animals in ways our predecessors did not.

We’ve started seeing the world from the animals’ perspective. And how did we acquire this new understanding? Paradoxically, our very experimentation on animals has shown us their sensitivity to pain, their capacity for emotional suffering and their intelligence. It has prompted our obligation to treat them with respect and kindness, prevent their suffering and preserve their habitat.

I still feel bad for NOC, who had the misfortune to be captured. Yet by isolating NOC from other Belugas, scientists learned enough about the whale’s mental agility to prick our consciences and make us question our treatment of animals in captivity. The scientists’ research on NOC may influence us to save the whales.

I am heartened by all the legislation passed recently to protect the animals with whom we humans share our planet, even the animals we eat, even the animals we put in zoos, even the animals we subject to experimentation, even the animals we cast in movies. I am particularly glad that the University of Georgia’s Animal Care and Use Office enforces not only the federal Animal Welfare Act Regulations but also the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, which protects all vertebrate animals. The Animal Welfare Act excludes mice, agricultural animals and — dear me! — birds.

The purpose of animal use in research is to benefit not just the human species but other species, too. The theory is that our incarceration of individual animals serves the wellbeing of their brothers and sisters and also us humans.

Well, all I can say is that this ethical issue is certainly complicated.

While I write, Cosmo is trying to divert my attention by talking, barking, telling telephone jokes and laughing. Now she is whistling a medley of tunes, tunes she learned from me, not from her mother, and not from other African greys because she doesn’t know any.

Cosmo pauses periodically to congratulate herself: “Wow, whatta bird!” She sends me kisses and says, “I love you!” I think she’s happy. But I doubt that I could be as high-spirited and affectionate as Cosmo if I were kept by a flock of parrots, even parrots who loved me and treated me royally as if I were one of them.

• Betty Jean Craige is professor emerita of comparative literature at the University of Georgia and the author of many books, including “Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot” (2010). Her email address is bettyjean@cosmotalks.com. Cosmo’s website address is www.cosmotalks.com.